Nurse Julie

I feel awful for not having posted anything in so long.  I have been very busy with the end of the semester.  Tomorrow is my final in Health Assessment…wish me luck!

I have lots of stories brewing in my brain, and promise to post more later!  Right now it is time to focus on finals and finding a job!! :(

Nurse Julie

My car is 10 years old and is presenting many problems these days.  It is not drivable right now.  It overheated on my way home from school today.  

In speaking with my mechanic and my roommate’s dad (also a mechanic) I learned that nurses and mechanics are a lot alike!  Both professions are like detectives.  They both have to figure out the problem based on clues.  Nurses use symptoms to figure out the disease process while mechanics use car symptoms to figure out the system they need to replace.

When your car overheats, it is a lot like the body experiencing heart failure.  Or, in other words, NOT GOOD.

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you cannot relate the things you learn in school to real life!  Cuz, I just did!

Nurse Julie

One of the advantages of being a nurse is that we get to stick people with needles!!  (Just kidding!)

We have this wonderful lab that is set up just like a hospital ward where we learn various skills.  One week we learned how to transfer patients from their bed to a wheelchair.  Another week we learned how to give bed baths. This past week, we learned the art of injection.  

Needles come in all kinds of lengths and gauges.  The variations are intended for use in different parts of the body.  A long thick needle is used for muscular injections.  Smaller thinner needles are intended for injection just under the skin (subcutaneous).  

We are expected to know the sites of injection, what needle to use, the best syringe to use, and the angle at which you administer the injection.  So, we got to practice!!

We practiced drawing up medicine in needles.  We practiced using different sizes of needles.  We practiced with different syringe types.  And we practiced re-capping needles.  IF ANYONE EVER TELLS YOU TO RE-CAP A NEEDLE, DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM!  The only time you should ever re-cap a needle is if you have drawn up the medication, and now you have to take the needle with you to another location.  (This is not practiced much anymore because most medicines given in a syringe are dispensed with the medication already in the syringe.)

I was practicing the scoop method of re-capping a needle.  You lay the cap on the table and without touching the cap, you scoop the needle in to the cap.  Once the needle is concealed, you can then touch the cap to lock it in place over the needle.  

Well, in nursing school, a lot of the needles we use were donated to the school by a clinic that did not like the style of needle.  (Now I know why they did not like these needles!)  These needles do not lock in to place on the syringe.  They simply slide on to the top of the syringe.  Most needles used in the hospital screw on to the top of the syringe so that they stay securely in place.  

As I was re-capping my needle, I pushed down too hard on the cap and the needle went right through the cap in to my finger!!  My first needle-stick!!!  Thank goodness these were sterile needles and it had not been used on anyone!  It had only been used to draw up saline solution. 

As my dad would say, ‘that was a teachable moment!’  I will never forget that lesson!!  My class should name me the safety expert on re-capping!!  It hurts like the dickens and it gave me a bruise! 

Nurse Julie

So, I was accepted to nursing school this past January.  I have survived the first 8 weeks, and I started thinking that I might share with my friends and family, and “the internet,” my accounts while in nursing school.  This could entail patients that I care for (names not disclosed), mistakes I make, lessons I learn, and what all of this means to me.  

I hope you all enjoy my stories, and if you feel so inclined, please, leave a message, or anecdote.  Let me know what you think!

Nurse Julie